The Countdown: 20 Worst Buccaneers Personnel Moves Of The Past 10 Years — No. 6
July 23rd, 2015
It’s the countdown feature you’ve all been waiting for. Not really, but on the heels of last year’s award-winning “20 Worst Buccaneers Of The Past 10 years” feature, Joe had to deliver.
A list like this is highly subjective and toxic. Fits of rage were common during production meetings at JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters. Scared interns soiled their pants. Full beer bottles were smashed, and a treasured Rachel Watson poster was accidently destroyed. But order was restored.
Current and former general managers and head coaches might not like what’s coming, but it had to be done. This is what happens when your team is 30-70 in its last 100 games.
No. 6 — Anthony Collins
At face value, Anthony Collins himself wasn’t an epic disaster at left tackle last year. He made some quality starts for the Bucs, and hey, not every free agent works out.
However, the Collins whiff was at the center of some very messy decision-making.
First, Lovie Smith and Jason Licht cut a legitimate NFL starter, an ironman starting left tackle in Donald Penn, who was a team-focused warrior and a former Pro Bowler. Penn didn’t miss a start from 2007 through 2013.
In the face of so many Bucs fans and media bashing Penn, Joe repeatedly said Penn’s 2013 film was solid and he was an asset that should have been retained. Even when Penn was abused by Robert Quinn in December 2013, he really wasn’t dreadful in that game.
But the Bucs quit on Penn, who moved on to the Raiders. Rookie QB Derek Carr was sacked just 24 times in 16 starts with Penn protecting him, while Tampa Bay QBs were sacked 52 times.
Collins, before being overpaid by the Bucs, had never started seven games during an NFL season. And whaddya know, Collins made it through seven Bucs starts before riding the bench with minor injuries.
Collins returned for three November starts. But he was garbage, and then the Bucs benched him in December, likely because they feared he would be injured before they ditched him after the season.
The Penn-Collins screwup was no insignificant miss. It essentially forced the Bucs into drafting a left tackle in May — Donovan Smith at No. 34 overall.
Joe’s praying Smith gets the job done. The last thing this franchise needs is the ghost of Donald Penn teaming up with the ghost of Simeon Rice.
No. 8 — Da’Quan Bowers (2011 and 2013)
No. 9 — Re-Signing Blocking Icon Michael Clayton
No. 11 — Michael “Ghost” Johnson
No. 13 — Free Agent Inactivity After 10-6, 2010 Season
No. 14 — Scaredy Cat Dexter Jackson
No. 16 — Choosing — And Drafting For — The Jim Bates Defense
No. 17 — Drafting Cadillac Williams Over DeMarcus Ware
July 23rd, 2015 at 11:05 am
This was a bad move but still not as bad as the Revis deal…
I still hope your number one mistake is naming Mark Dominik as GM…
July 23rd, 2015 at 11:13 am
“Collins, before being overpaid by the Bucs, had never started seven games during an NFL season. And whaddya know, Collins made it through seven Bucs starts before riding the bench with minor injuries.” – Joe
THIS IS WHY I look at our free agent signings this year and predict an injury disaster for the Bucs for the season!
July 23rd, 2015 at 11:28 am
Bonzai…Oh Happy Days!
July 23rd, 2015 at 11:33 am
The tension is building for the top-5.
I, Howard, think this list is fairly spot-on.
Personally I would rate the Gruden firing higher.
Revis = #1
Bennett = #2
July 23rd, 2015 at 11:40 am
and trading center/guard jeremy zuttah…. and now the bucs draft a D3er to replace two solid nfl OL licht and lovie are friggin morons
July 23rd, 2015 at 11:51 am
Once again I don’t care about the order Joe has this F-ups in, my personal #1 has already passed. Just to see the magnitude of these 20 blunders is truly sad. I am used to losing as a Bucs fans and mistakes like this are the reason
July 23rd, 2015 at 12:06 pm
There’s no doubt that signing Collins to a contract with guaranteed $ and expecting him to take over the LT position and do well when he had never played a whole season before was a major reach that obviously didn’t work out. At least L&L were smart enough to cut their losses on that and other mistakes at the end of the season.
The take that letting Penn go was a major mistake is not dealing with reality though. Dude gave up 13.5 sacks in 2013 and a bunch more QB hurries and hits. Penn was rated the 38th best Tackle in the league by PFF at the end of 2013.
If Donald Penn had been willing to play for the Bucs at the $4.5M compensation he earned in Oakland last year – I’m sure the Bucs would have probably kept him. But paying $8M+ for a LT coming off the worst season of his career just would not have been a smart move. Releasing Penn because his salary did not match his production only looks bad because the Collins move turned out so badly.
July 23rd, 2015 at 12:32 pm
How do you replace Penn with injury prone Collins? How? It makes no freaking sense at all! One stupid game and Penn is deemed washed up by Lovie and Licht? Get the f out!
Or how about trading Zuttah for a sixth? Zuttah was solid and versatile. He had a rare mix of strength and speed in space. Stupid move. I said it then and it hold true now. We could have Mankins playing between Zuttah and Penn and have some rapport. No. Now we gotta hope two rookies, one from D3, can play quality football.
July 23rd, 2015 at 1:01 pm
Joe can still hear the cheering from Bucs fans when the Bucs let go of Penn.
After the Rams game last year, you’d be hard-pressed to find many Bucs fans who wanted Penn back. Joe was not among them. Then again, Joe was at that freaking game in person and had his binoculars on Penn the whole game. Sure, he gave up two sacks to Robert Quinn when the game was over near the end to one of the best pass-rushers in the game. Penn had a decent game through three quarters (Joe vividly remembers Penn ragdolling Quinn and flipping him in the air on one play), but no, the folks who only got snippets on TV knew better.
Who is laughing now?
Besides, if it took running off decent players and signing a bunch of garbage stiffs to ensure the Chase for Jameis; job well done!
July 23rd, 2015 at 1:22 pm
I, Howard, lobbied hard on various blogs and bulletin boards
for Penn to get a nice extension, which he did (smart move by
the Bucs).
I, Howard, also never lost faith in Penn and thought that the
blowing up of the old O-line was huge mistake, which it was
(dumb move by the Bucs).
I forgot about Zuttah (that’s like forgetting about Dre).
So that’s three of the top five…..Oh, the anticipation!
July 23rd, 2015 at 2:01 pm
Anthony Collins was the worse signing we had last year and that’s saying something.
July 23rd, 2015 at 2:03 pm
Joe Says:
July 23rd, 2015 at 1:01 pm
“if it took running off decent players and signing a bunch of garbage stiffs to ensure the Chase for Jameis; job well done!”
That is truly the bottom line for every “bad decision” made in 2014.
All’s well that ends well.
July 23rd, 2015 at 3:51 pm
For all guys who want to be an NFL coach or work in a NFL front office…
DO NOT spend a year watching game film in Lovie’s basement!!!!
July 23rd, 2015 at 3:56 pm
Joe really wants to know what was being consumed in that basement while watching film… if they were watching film.
July 23rd, 2015 at 7:11 pm
Please tell me you have drafting Michael Clayton over Steven Jackson somewheree on this list, or at least an asterisk next to the Cadillac Williams pick (don’t draft Cadilac if you draft Jackson year before).
I’ll tell you what he was watching in that basement, tapes of Jameis. I think time in the basement did him good. He got it right last year. He said “hey if you’re gonna suck, you might as well really suck. Last game we’re pulling our starters.” Imagine if Schiano were still coach. We would’ve won that last game. Schiano’s going for the win that game, and every other game. Right up to the the kneel down play hahahahaha!
July 23rd, 2015 at 7:47 pm
I believe we should have given Michael Johnson and Anthony Collins another year.I’m not the GM but in my opinion, that would make more sense than giving up on them after one season. But it is a done deal now, no need to cry over spill milk.
July 23rd, 2015 at 9:01 pm
No disagreement here.
Here’s another concern from the Collins fallout tho: that the Bucs don’t learn from relying heavily on unproven talent.
But what do u expect when a team has as much coaching turnover as the Bucs? There hasn’t been an agenda on the table for longer than 3 years!
July 24th, 2015 at 4:26 pm
Dan makes a great point, if Schiano was the coach last season the Bucs are certainly winning the game against the Saints taking them out of the top slot. Lovie had to work to make sure we got the top pick by benching the team the 2nd half. Thank you Lovie, you are smarter than some people give you credit for.
July 25th, 2015 at 12:30 am
The Glazers spent alot of $$$$$ last year on FA. Didnt think they would do that much since signing Carl Nicks and Eric Wright. They gave the green light go. I bet they dont do that again, unless they believe we are 1 or 2 players away from a SB. They learned their lesson here. Took L&L bad talent evaluation to make that happen. Although I Think C. McDonald and A. Verner will work out. This year L&L went in a better direction, but we will see how these role players signed this year work out. I would have to say so far I think Jason and His scouts are better than Dom and his team. Lol